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I thought it was funny though when Touma took Index to his teacher's place. I mean he's still trying to come to grips with the whole "magic is real" thing, but then he dumps the girl at his completely unsuspecting teacher's apartment with a "This girl is gonna tell you a magic spell you need to recite to heal her. Bye!"

I do like the Touma character, though I think they could tone him down a notch. Just a bit too much pathos there at the end over Index's situation

As for him surviving that fall and knocking out the other guy with one punch, I see it as just your standard action hero schtick. How many times have you seen <insert action movie star here> take enough punishment to kill a normal person 5 times over, then get up and punch somebody's lights out?

I have the feeling this anime will be pretty long, definitely over 20 episodes.

From pages bacK:

Quote:

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

The usual episode count FYI, since I don't see it covered elsewhere yet. Someone already mentioned that the show was going to be releasing simultaneously on Blu-Ray and DVD in Japan, but now the full solicitations are up on the usual places confirming that the series will feature 24 episodes (spread over 8 discs, whether Blu-Ray or DVD).

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-Blog --> http://tdnshumi.blogspot.com/ (Mainly about video games)
-R.I.P. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gaming wouldn't have been the same without you (9/19/13)

It's best not to care too much about that.. If the ink didn't fade so conveniently, Touma wouldn't have found a way to take down the Innocentius.

Seems official website updated with episode three (they should update the notice at the top...)...
Here's our guest for next week~

Spoiler for just a pic:

Kind... of strange...? This screenshot of hers look a bit odd somewhere... The eyes...? Kind of feels strange somewhere...
Mah, don't really like her anyways, so it doesn't pain me if she gets a bad shot or two.

__________________

-Blog --> http://tdnshumi.blogspot.com/ (Mainly about video games)
-R.I.P. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gaming wouldn't have been the same without you (9/19/13)

Why do shounen action series tend to be so ridiculously shallow and inane? I mean, they spend the majority of the episode fighting and talking at each other (I rue to call it "dialogue" since they weren't so much communicating as they were spouting words at each other and the audience). BFD. *Yawn* Wake me up when the characters aren't completely one-dimensional or the fight scenes don't resemble the ones from Shakugan no Shana that no one was interested in anyway.

Why do shounen action series tend to be so ridiculously shallow and inane? I mean, they spend the majority of the episode fighting and talking at each other (I rue to call it "dialogue" since they weren't so much communicating as they were spouting words at each other and the audience). BFD. *Yawn* Wake me up when the characters aren't completely one-dimensional or the fight scenes don't resemble the ones from Shakugan no Shana that no one was interested in anyway.

A pretty silly way to summarize the episode, sorry. Have to disagree entirely. The talk before the fight was quite relevant in explaining several issues (origin of Index and her abilities, reasong why she is hunted). During the fight itself there was almost no typical shounen boasting, rather Index's computerized explanation of Stiyl's powers (also relevant). There was a proper explanation on why the fight ended the way it did other than the typical-shounen mystical powerup. Post-fight, we got more explanations about the differences between magic and esper abilities. And where you have the so-called "shallowness" is a mystery to me too - since it's already clear that Stiyl isn't a run-the-mill badguy at all.

I mean, I know that you have the tendency to go a bit overboard when feel like dissing, but this time I'd say you're simply factually off. I for one have to say that I can remember no show in this season with higher production values - and Shakugan no Shana's fighting scenes were probably among the most popular and watched (and downloaded) shows of their respective seasons. So that's not too bad in my book

In a nutshell, Index is no shounen action. Treating it as such is oversimplifying things tremensously.

A pretty silly way to summarize the episode, sorry. Have to disagree entirely. The talk before the fight was quite relevant in explaining several issues (origin of Index and her abilities, reasong why she is hunted). During the fight itself there was almost no typical shounen boasting, rather Index's computerized explanation of Stiyl's powers (also relevant). There was a proper explanation on why the fight ended the way it did other than the typical-shounen mystical powerup. Post-fight, we got more explanations about the differences between magic and esper abilities. And where you have the so-called "shallowness" is a mystery to me too - since it's already clear that Stiyl isn't a run-the-mill badguy at all.

I mean, I know that you have the tendency to go a bit overboard when feel like dissing, but this time I'd say you're simply factually off. I for one have to say that I can remember no show in this season with higher production values - and Shakugan no Shana's fighting scenes were probably among the most popular and watched (and downloaded) shows of their respective seasons. So that's not too bad in my book

In a nutshell, Index is no shounen action. Treating it as such is oversimplifying things tremensously.

If it's not a shounen action, then what is it? A mystery series? All of it is pretty straightforward. We already know about Index's power and why she'd be highly sought after. They spent close to ten minutes in this episode with Touma avoiding fire monsters and Stiyl throwing flashy blasts of fire across the screen. So what if we don't get powerups and obnoxious, conceited exchanges of dialogue, they still have the fantastic powers and lengthy fight sequences that are a hallmark of shounen action series. Add in hot-headed, temperamental, violently-inclined characters and pointless lolis and you have another two characteristics common to some (not all) shounen action series.

An anime doesn't have to resemble DBZ or Naruto to be a shounen action series. Claymore, My-HiME and Idolm@ster Xenoglossia are all shounen action, the difference is that they're good shounen action because they actually bother adding a past, a set of motivations, and an intricate web of relationships to their characters. That's what makes their stories so involving... you actually come to care about what's going to happen to these characters. How can I bring myself to care about this lot:

Touma: "I have no idea what's going on around me but I'm just hot-headed enough to not back down."
Index: Two personalities, one a happy loli, the other a robotic loli with a library in her head.
Komoe: Moe-blob psuedo-loli.
Stiyl: Has fire magic powers and crap. Same evil smile on his face for the entire episode.

When they weren't fighting, the other half of the episode was spent with them talking about the rules of the universe. It was basically a lecture to the audience. I'm not interested in that crap, I don't watch anime to get lengthy lectures about the magic systems of a fictional universe. Yes, they had to explain things, but couldn't they have figured out a more interesting way to do so than have two people, two very boring characters, no less, stand there and talk?

I can only assume that this gets better once it gets out of its "set up" phase, because it can't get much more boring than that. I don't know why people are going nuts for it, though, since the episode can be easily split into long-winded explanations of the rules and a lengthy fight sequence which is all flash and just about zero in the way of genuine drama and suspense. Between this and the popularity of Shakugan no Shana, it makes me think you can just about forgo characterization and storytelling and still quell the audience with well-animated flashes of fire. Yes, popular anime are often crap. Don't worry, this doesn't keep me up at night anymore.

While I sat through episode 2, my brain just turned off and to amuse myself, I replaced the script they used with what I would have written had I been in charge. The way my version and the version shown to us diverged were starkly different with most of the differences coming from giving Stiyl some motivation that we can at least sympathize with even if we don't necessarily agree with it.

For example, that whole scene where Stiyl explains how important Index was could have been rewritten to say something along the lines of "she contains all the big important secrets and we cannot trust you to guard her because there are more powerful organizations that seek to get their hands on her. For the good of this world, we're taking her into our care because you have little understanding in the forces you're up against..." and so on. Bam. Clear motivation. Dialogue that's less pointless than the one that we got instead. And a revelation about more sinister elements lurking out in the whole wide world.

Is this motivation particularly deep? Heck no! But by giving us even this much insight into the character's mindset, we can glean a whole lot more about his personality, making him feel real. Had they given us even that much, I could see the story become much more compelling than it has been so far, but until then, this is an exemplary result of shallow writing.